Q: MY DOG WONT EAT!

Answered by Swoozie on 2/23/2006, 7:39 am

A: MY DOG WONT EAT!

Do you know what they're injecting him with??? The only thing I can possibly think would be prednizone because it gives a dog a false sense of hunger, but personally, I would be a little leary of a vet who doesn't do any bloodwork to look for any underlying medical reason causing your dog to not wanting to eat and just fills them full of prednizone. My suggestion would be to take him to another vet, today if possible and make sure they examine him for any dental problems, and do testing to look for any underlying medical reason causing your dog to not wanting to eat. If he's given a clean bill of health, then you can chalk it up to him training you! ;-) Dogs aren't dumb and some will hold out eating their dog food in hopes that their owners will give them those irresistable table scraps. No health dog will allow themselves to starve to death. What you have to do is, feed him he's food and if she doesn't eat it within 15-20 minutes, pick his bowl up and don't put it back down till his next feeding time. When he gets good and hungry, he'll eat.

You want to make sure to feed your dog a top quality food such brands as Innova, California Natural, Flint River Ranch, Wellness, Solid Gold, Wysong, Canidae, Merrick (has a Venison and Bison formula) any of the 100%% Natural dog foods. They're made with 100%% human grade ingredients, they're low in grains, the vitamins and minerals are chelated for faster absorbtion in to body, they have the essential fatty acids for health skin and coat. They contain no by products, dyes, cancer causing preservatives such as ethoxyquin, BHA or BHT (which are banned for use in human food), no artifical flavor enhancers. These foods cost more but because they're lower in filler which goes right through a dog, you feed less because they have more ingredients that fill your dog. You can find these foods at places like Petsmart, Petco, feed stores and some local pet stores carry natural foods. You will be amazed at the difference it will make in your dogs appearance feeding a quality food and their overall health will be better.
If you do decide to switch, you do it slowly, you decrease a small amount of the old and replace that amount with the new, then daily, decrease a little more of the old food, and replace the amount with new. it generally takes a week to switch a dog over to a new food :-) Flint River Ranch can only be purchased directly from the company via the internet http://www.flintriver.com/ and they ship free, directly to your home.

Educate yourself on what's in those bags of food you pull off the grocery store and discount center shelves. Guaranteed, once you've aquired the knowledge, you'll switch to a high quality food. You wouldn't want to eat it, so neither should your dog.
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Contents.htm
http://www.allourpets.com/htmls/petfood.shtml

You're right about Science diet, it's horrible food. Even their "natural" food isn't quality food. Their food is loaded with corn and it's usually the first ingredient and that in itself makes it not good quality. They use corn and lots of it because it's cheaper. They use by products, or if they do use chicken or another type of meat, it's not "human grade". Their foods contain added fat, mainly pork fat which is sprayed on, and it's soley used as a "flavor enhancer", most of their formulas contain ethoxyquin, BHA and BHT.

Please get your dog to the vets and make sure he gets a good thorough examination from nose to tail and bloodwork to look for any medical problem causing him to not want to eat. good luck :-)





> Can you help me? I have a three year old chocolate lab
> (male) who just refuses to eat his food. He has always been
> a fussy eater but over the last week he will not entertain
> eating his dinner. He is not really eating biscuits either
> but is awlays more than happy to eat human food. We have
> taken him to vets but all they do is give him an injection
> but the food problem remains. The vets have recommended
> Hills food but I have heard alot of bad reports about that
> food. Dont know whether he is actually ill or whether hes
> leading us a merry dance! Any help or advice would be
> appreciated.
>